


All Things Considered

by ohmytheon



Series: daemons and alchemy [9]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Daemons, F/M, Gen, Other, Post-Canon, Prompt Fic, Royai kid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 11:13:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7047259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmytheon/pseuds/ohmytheon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Riza takes Aidan with her to the Fuhrer's mansion to visit her grandfather and discuss how both she and her daemon are handling life now that she's been discharged from the military after her affair with Roy came to light and thinks about how things took so many unexpected turns.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Things Considered

**Author's Note:**

> Oh what the hell. Might as well combine one of my AUs with another to make a SUPER AU. This was also my first time writing Gruman’s daemon, so I had to come up with names for both his and Aidan’s. I had a lot of fun with this and even wrote some stuff hinting about the Promised Day. Set post Highlights from my Hamilton-inspired fic series, "Who Tells Your Story?", and pre Drabble 100 (“Until the Day”) from my 100 Royai drabble series, "you pull me through time", but basically Roy and Riza’s affair is no longer a secret. I think this is the farthest in the timeline that I’ve written for the daemon AU as well. Notes on daemons at the bottom.

Shifting Aidan carefully on her hip, Riza took a deep breath and then stepped onto the stone path. The end of the path held a gazebo with a table and three chairs underneath, one of them already occupied by the Fuhrer, her grandfather. Wojciech trotted dutifully at her side, still unable to shake the military out of him. She doubted that he would ever be able to do that. Being a soldier was just as much a part of him as it was for her.

Had been for her.

She wasn’t a soldier anymore.

Aidan’s little Atsuko clung onto Wojciech’s back in a baby racoon form. She was as quiet as her human, her eyes gleaming brightly behind the bandit racoon mask. Oftentimes, when they went out in public, Atsuko would shift into a smaller form and ride on top of Wojciech. It was such a stark difference to before. With the exception of the daemons on the team, most daemons were terrified of Wojciech or leery at best and tended to keep their distance from him. And then there was Atsuko. If she wasn’t in Aidan’s arms or near him, then she was clinging to Wojciech or playing with him.

It was something of a strange yet comical sight to see Wojciech so gentle with Atsuko. Even when she shifted into the form of a wolf pup, she was tiny compared to him. People always gawked when the two of them were in public together, even other parents, whose daemons played with their children’s daemons. Part of them seemed to question how Riza could trust such a dangerous daemon with her son’s little one, but Riza trusted Wojciech with more than her life. She smiled at the thought of people panicking when Shula was around. Trusting a wolf with a three year-old and his unsettled daemon was one thing, but a full grown lion as well? People must think her mad.

Well, people thought a lot about her these days. Mad wasn’t even the top of the list. A damn shame at best, a pathetic disgrace to some, and a manipulative whore at worst. None of it phased her, of course. She had long since accepted the role she played and what would happen to her. She broke the rules. Punishment surely followed. It didn’t hurt nearly as much as she’d expected though, not when she had Aidan to come home to every night.

“Ah, here they are, my two favorite people in the world,” Fuhrer Grumman exclaimed, standing up with a still surprising amount of energy for a man his age. He may have been a great grandfather now, but that didn’t stop him from reaching out to take his great grandson into his arms.

“Granpop!” Aidan exclaimed excitedly. He went from Riza to Grumman with ease, wrapping his arms around the older man’s neck and hugging him with as much strength as a three year-old could muster.

Atsuko crawled on top of Wojciech’s head before shifting into a sugar glider and floating towards Min, Fuhrer’s arctic fox. Her coat was white with only faint hints of brown now that winter neared. It didn’t get cold in Central, not like in the north, but her fur still changed with the seasons. She was one of the few daemons who was able to change somehow. Riza thought that some of that white though looked more grey, especially around her muzzle, as if to signify Grumman’s age.

“How is my best boy doing?” Grumman asked. “Did you have fun this Halloween?”

“Lots of fun!” Aidan proclaimed. He wiggled in Grumman’s arms so that he could look back at her. “Did you bring the pictures, Mom? For Granpop’s office!”

Riza nodded her head. “Of course.”

After years of not having a single picture of his family to decorate his office in East City, plenty of things had changed when Grumman became Fuhrer. Not only had he found a few pictures of his late wife and daughter, but he also had a granddaughter and great grandson to take pictures of. The office that had once contained pictures of the happy Bradley family now contained Grumman’s, something he confessed to never believing he’d have again. It was still strange to the both of them, considering they’d remained distant even after Grumman explained their relation to each other. It was out in the open though and Grumman was more than happy to show his family off.

Even after he was forced to discharge her for dishonorable conduct and breaking the anti-fraternization laws. Blood relation could only go so far. They had kept apart in order to ensure that people wouldn’t accuse him of giving preferential treatment to her or Roy. When the time came to hand out punishments to the both of them, he couldn’t afford to slack in that position, especially as Fuhrer. In the end, Riza took the brunt of the punishment while Roy was able to escape with a slap on the wrists.

She didn’t care though. As much as it had hurt to be chucked out of the military like trash after all that she’d done and what it had done to her, Riza did not regret her decisions. While she was forced to find another way to keep up her end of the promise with Roy, she found her life to be quite fulfilling. And she was never alone. Wojciech never left her side. He protected her when the reporters began to hound them, snarling and acting out so viciously that he became the subject of a few articles himself.

Despite everything, Riza had a family, one she had never counted on before. She had a bright son with an equally sweet-tempered daemon, a grandfather who adored her and made sure she and her son were taken care of, and while they couldn’t always be together, a man and daemon that loved her and her daemon with everything in them. She had friends that stood up for her to the point of getting in trouble and a woman that was more like a sister to her than a mere friend. She had more than she could ever ask for.

“And how are you, my dear?” Grumman asked in a suspiciously sly tone as he set Aidan down in his seat. Atsuko turned into a small robin and flew up to her, turning into a mouse and disappearing up his sleeve.

Riza watched as Wojciech allowed Min to lick his nose and then slip in between his legs. He was quite larger than her as well and could’ve easily snatched up Min in one bite, but he played the pup when Min was around. She was as clever and quick as Grumman despite her age and had a biting sense of humor. She could feel how pleased Wojciech was when he sat down on his haunches and Min nodded her head, like she was finished assessing him. It felt like a sense of approval, reminding her distantly of what Wojciech used to yearn for from her father and his Vidya before he was settled.

“I’m doing well, sir,” Riza responded.

Grumman gave her a look. “You don’t have to call me that anymore.”

“Well, you’re still the Fuhrer,” Riza pointed out, “and old habits die hard.”

“How many people do you have to call ‘sir’?” Aidan asked from his seat. It was an absurd question that made sense only if you looked at it from a child’s perspective. It did make both Grumman and Min laugh. She thought it was the kind of question that would trip up people once they thought about it.

“Isn’t that Mustang’s name?” Atsuko asked upon peeking out from Aidan’s collar, now in the form of a snake. She swiveled her head from Wojciech to Min, who looked taken aback more than anything. Wojciech was still, his face not betraying anything, but she felt his discomfort bleed into her. “That’s what we call him.”

“That’s not his name though,” Aidan told his daemon. “We can’t say his name.”

Riza fought the urge to sigh and remained as passive-looking as Wojciech. She had been told since Wojciech settled that he wasn’t nearly as expressive as most wolves. Even though Grumman was excellent at hiding his own emotions, having been the one to help Roy learn the ropes of political intrigue in the military, a small frown appeared on his face and his shoulders dropped slightly. He had been thrilled by the revelation that he would be a great grandfather, but also knew what that meant for Riza and Roy. It hadn’t been a pleasure to sign off on his own granddaughter’s discharge papers.

A slight uncomfortableness hung in the air until Wojciech huffed. Standing up, he turned around, his tail brushing against Aidan’s chair, and then walked away from the veranda. Riza watched as her wolf walked all the way to a small pond, testing the limits of their bond, and laid down there. It wasn’t often that Wojciech strayed from her side and only did so when he was upset. They’d spent a few nights sleeping in the separate rooms for the past few months, ever since the article about her and Roy’s affair came out.

Though it hurt her greatly, Riza couldn’t blame him. Being kept away from Roy and Shula hurt, as they seemed to be a part of them as much as they were to each other, but Wojciech yearned so terribly to become whole. They couldn’t do that as they were now. Keeping their distance hadn’t been so painful before Aidan and Atsuko came. Now it was almost unbearable. While Aidan had never questioned Riza why he couldn’t call Roy by “dad” or anything like that, Atsuko cried sometimes for Shula after she saw the lion daemon and she did not come to them. It was hard on Wojciech to know that he sometimes wasn’t enough.

“He’ll be fine,” Riza said flatly when Grumman opened his mouth to say something, letting him know that she really didn’t want to talk about it. Wisely, he closed his mouth and nodded his head. She hadn’t talked about the distance between her and Wojciech with anyone. When Shula had tried to comment on it, Wojciech had looked at her blankly and then refused to say anything for the rest of the day.

Min tilted her head, her black eyes sharp against the white of her fur, and then quietly walked over to sit with Wojciech, whether he wanted the companionship or not. Atsuko looked curiously at the adults before slipping onto Aidan’s lap before shifting into a wolf pup and loping after them. Unfortunately, he could not get as far as the two settled daemons and had to stop halfway to the pond before Aidan jerked in his seat and made a noise. She could not go to the daemons unless Aidan went with her. They were too young and too close. Their bond did not stretch as far as Riza’s. Even Grumman shifted in his seat because of the distance between him and Min.

“Honestly, we’re fine,” Riza told her grandfather, watching as Atsuko crawled back to Aidan with her tail tucked in between her legs. She stayed a wolf pup this time, putting her hand on Aidan’s lap and closing her eyes as he sunk his fingers into her fur. Grumman gave her a disbelieving look, pressing his lips together. “Adjusting has been trying. We were in the military for so long and never considered a life outside of it. Now that I’m not a soldier any longer… Well, it’s a lot like losing a part of yourself. The military defined me.”

“You’re still you,” Grumman said gently. “A lot of things that we never consider happens.” He waved a hand in the direction of the large mansion where he lived. “I never planned on being the Fuhrer.”

Riza smiled at him. “Until a young Colonel paved the way for you.”

Grumman chuckled. “I will admit, despite the threat of being charged with treason or death by monsters, it was the easiest promotion I’ve ever received.” They never talked about such things with Aidan around, only hinted at them, but luckily he was distracted by a whispered conversation with Atsuko. One day she would have to tell him everything that happened before he was born, but it was difficult to wrap her own mind around sometimes. “And you may have lost a part of yourself after leaving the military, but something else replaced it. A mother is a soldier in their own right, are they not?”

“It certainly feels that way some nights,” Riza sighed.

Aidan and Atsuko both looked up at her and back to where Wojciech and Min were sitting at the pond. Nodding her head, Aidan smiled and got up from his seat, hurrying over towards them with Atsuko hot on his trail. It would irritate Wojciech at first that he wasn’t being left alone like he wanted, but he’d soften upon seeing those two. She felt the iciness in him thawing the second he swung his head to see who was bothering him now.

She was lucky, she knew - very lucky. Aidan was a good kid. He very rarely cried; he liked vegetables and fruit; he was curious and liked to learn. All in all, despite all the obstacles stacked against him, he was good. But even he had his moments. He had the same terrible sleeping schedule as Roy and an insatiable need to know everything. He was intuitive to the point where she couldn’t hide things from him easily. Just like her, whenever he was upset, he would close in on himself and refuse to let anyone besides Atsuko. Not even Wojciech could wheedle his way into cheering him up or finding out what exactly was wrong.

Honestly, Riza thought that she had seen and heard the worst things in the world, but nothing broke her heart quite like the way Aidan had when he’d confessed to her, tears in his eyes and lips wobbling, that he was upset because she looked sad when was alone and thought no one could see her. _“Are you still sad when I’m with you?”_ he had asked her, like he’d thought that he wasn’t enough to make her happy or maybe he was the cause.

“It will get easier with time,” Grumman assured her.

She certainly hoped so, but every day Aidan got older brought up new problems. It was better that her and Roy’s insubordination came to light now when he was so young. She didn’t want to think what might’ve happened to Aidan had he been older when children could understand. The parents from his daycare gave her enough cold shoulders and withering, disgusted looks, as if they had never done something shameful in their lives.

Riza didn’t give a damn what they thought. Skirting the anti-fraternization rules and having a child out of wedlock with her superior officer was at the bottom of the list of terrible things she had done in her life.

“Have you any thoughts of what you’re going to do now?” Grumman questioned.

That was something that made Riza nearly wince. “No, not yet. I… I have money saved up, so I’ve been able to keep up with the bills, but…” Her stomach churned. The sandwiches that were brought to them and set down on the table didn’t look appetizing at all, despite the fact that she hadn’t eaten yet today. “I’m going to have to come up with something soon. It turns out raising a child isn’t cheap.”

“Why don’t you move in here for a while?” Grumman suddenly offered.

Riza straightened up in her seat. “That’s too much-”

“Nonsense,” Grumman interrupted dismissively. “It’s an absurdly large place, but the fact is that it was build to house a family and I’m just one man.” He shrugged his shoulders, looking careless, but the sunlight reflected off of his glasses in a way that reminded her of Maes Hughes whenever he had been acting sneaky. “Besides, it’s not like I have to pay for the bills or anything. You could save up money while looking for another job.”

“Are you sure you’re not just saying this because you’re a lonely old man?” Riza asked dryly.

Grumman placed a hand over his heart and leaned back. “My dear, how you wound me! Is it so out of character for me that I might want to help my loved ones?” He dropped his hand as a genuinely sorrowful look crossed his face and she knew that he was no longer teasing her or joking. “I feel guilty about my hand in what happened to you. I know how strongly you felt about serving under Roy, though not the exact reasons. He said that you two made a promise with each other. I worried that your discharge might break his resolve.”

“If being forced to perform human transmutation and having his vision taken away by Truth and then later on being separated from his son didn’t break his resolve, then nothing will,” Riza said resolutely.

Roy had gone through literal hell, one worse than her, and yet he was still fighting. She didn’t think there was anything that would make him stop, save for hers or Aidan’s deaths. She thought about the wild and desperate look in Shula’s eyes when Riza had been lying on the ground bleeding on the Promised Day. She had never thought that the lion could ever look so openly terrified; she hadn’t even been able to roar. That was the only time she had seen Roy or Shula waver. Not even returning from beyond the Gate of Truth and finding out that they had been severed from one another had done that to them.

“Nonetheless, I worry,” Grumman said. “That lion daemon of his looks ready to tear into me every time we cross paths and Roy swears she knows I couldn’t change what happened to you.”

Riza fought the urge to smile. “Shula has always been overprotective.”

“I’m sure he’s told you, but she’s grown a bit wild since your discharge,” Grumman admitted as he rubbed his temple. Riza had in fact already been told. Not only had Roy told her about some of Shula’s outbursts, but Havoc had as well. Apparently neither he nor Hiroko were anywhere near as good at helping keep Roy’s more emotional side under the lid. “A reporter tried to get a few statements from him two days ago, asking him if he’d moved on to another woman since you were out of the picture. In response, Shula destroyed their camera and recording equipment and scared the man and his poor hare daemon out of his wits. It took a lot of convincing to keep him from writing an article about the incident.”

At that, Riza raised an eyebrow. She hadn’t heard about that yet. Likely Roy was embarrassed and asked the team not to tell her under the guise that he would in time. Most of the time, she didn’t blink twice at what was written about Roy or her in the paper, knowing full well that most of it was just garbage, inflammatory, or just plain wrong, but she would’ve recognized that as truth if it had been written. She could picture Shula standing in front of Roy, bearing her teeth and growling at a trembling reporter clutching his terrified daemon, while Roy coldly said, _“No comment.”_

The man could be cool under the worst of pressure, but if the wrong button was pressed, he tended to go off the handle. With her naturally large size and already fearsome presence, Shula could be even worse.

“The adjustment has been difficult on both ends apparently,” Riza finally settled on saying.

“The understatement of the year, I can assure you,” Grumman said.

He wasn’t wrong. Both she and Roy were trying to downplay this entire thing like they had done everything else, but they couldn’t deny how much it hurt. Once again, they had been forced apart and this time it was their own damn fault. Riza didn’t regret the outcome - she couldn’t, not with how much she loved Aidan and Atsuko - but she did wish it had come about a different way. They hadn’t just hurt themselves in their selfishness, but now also their son and their friends.

“We’ll make it through somehow,” Riza said, “just as we’ve done everything else.” She looked down at her hands. She wished Wojciech was with her right now. The desire to wrap her arms around his neck and press her face into his fur lulled over her like a dull throb, reminding her so painfully of when she was a child and he was all she had. Back then, she had been forced to keep her distance from Roy as well and Wojciech, stubborn and determined, pushed her towards him anyways. He wanted to do that now, but she wasn’t letting him. “Roy was the main concern. I’m just glad that he was able to get out of this mostly unscathed.”

Grumman gave her a knowing look. “You’ll always have his back, won’t you?”

“Of course,” Riza affirmed, nodding her head just once.

“Knowing you two, I’ve no doubt that you’ll figure something out,” Grumman said, his attention diverting away from her as Aidan and the daemons returned.

Aidan wore a look of his excitement, his dark eyes bright and his body brimming with newfound energy. Atsuko ran about him, so close to tripping him as she played in the form of a fox cub, but somehow managed to avoid doing so at the right moment. “You have so many fish in the pond. Atsuko even turned into one and swam around with them!”

“Did she now?” Grumman said, an amused look on his face. Once more, he became the kind and funny great-grandfather that Aidan knew, the heaviness of their conversation moments ago gone from him. It was easy for Riza to see how he did so well in politics. He could jump into any skin with ease. It was no wonder Roy was capable of the same thing with Grumman and Madam Christmas as his mentors.

“The world looks funny from the water,” Atsuko proclaimed.

“ _You_ looked funny in the water,” Min added, brushing up against Atusko and then nipping at her black paws, causing Atsuko to leap back. Unlike Min, Atsuko’s fox coat was more reddish brown, like what Min’s coat would look like during the spring and summer months. “Fish are food; they’re silly as daemons. Could you imagine having to be carried in a bowl everywhere?”

As Aidan and Atsuko giggled, Riza glanced to Wojciech who padded up silently behind them. There was an almost serene look on his face, one that she knew he struggled to keep in place. When they connected eyes, he didn’t look away from her. She didn’t blink or falter either. _Are you okay?_

_Am I not the one supposed to ask you that?_

Unable to help herself, Riza smiled a little at his questioning answer. Fondness flowed through their bond. Much like Atsuko had done earlier, Wojciech stepped up next to her and laid his head in her lap. Being as large as he was, he had to hunch down slightly. He could’ve laid his head down on top of the table with ease. Still, even if the position was uncomfortable, nothing in their bond reflected it. She felt incredibly grateful for Wojciech in this moment. She never felt so safe as when he was with her. Everything about him radiated protection.

God, Riza couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be severed from him and not able to get the same comfort from him as she did now. It still hurt her to think about Roy and Shula’s situation. The Philosopher’s Stone may have helped return Roy’s eyesight, but it couldn’t restore his bond with his daemon. Like Edward with Alathea and Alphonse with Anima, Roy and Shula had been ripped apart from each other forever.

Riza could not deny the disconnect she sometimes felt from Roy whenever she touched Shula. Before, when Shula would lean up against her, she always felt like fire was dancing under her skins - she could feel Roy. Even now years later, when Shula would lay her head on Riza’s stomach as they slept, Riza felt a distinct…absence of something. She still got a shock and a pleasant rush, but the fire was gone. It scared her at times. Was Roy even able to feel her and Wojciech anymore when she touched Shula?

“Mom?” Aidan’s voice ripped Riza out of her thoughts. She blinked, in a slight daze, and turned her eyes to her son, who was peering up at her curiously and holding out a sandwich to her. “Aren’t you hungry?”

“Oh, yes, thank you,” Riza said as she took the sandwich from him and smiled. It didn’t manage to entirely fool Aidan, who wore the tiniest of frowns. He was definitely too smart. The look on his face said he knew exactly what she was thinking about, even if he didn’t. He always seemed to know when she was upset though and would throw his arms around her waist or neck. “I’m sorry, just thinking.”

Aidan hummed, sounding distinctly like he didn’t believe her, before picking up a sandwich of his own and biting into it. He tore off the crust and handed it down to Atsuko at his feet. They always shared food, even if Atsuko had her own. Riza had learned to put extra food on his plate after a while. She took a bite out of her sandwich and gave him a careful look, Wojciech opening one eye to make sure Atsuko didn’t try to push the subject.

Here she was, getting analyzed by a three year-old. While he most definitely behaved like her, he got his mind from Roy undoubtedly. Grumman shook his head, having witnessed the entire thing, stroking Min’s back as she sat in his lap. They were an unusual family with an even stranger life. Riza could honestly say that, out of all the things she’d envisioned for her future when she was a child, this hadn’t been anywhere close. Back then, she thought that Wojciech would settle as some sort of bird and Roy was just another of her father’s students.

How could she have known that so much would happen and change between them? How could she have anticipated that their lives would tangle up together so irrevocably? Grumman was right. It seemed as if nearly everything that happened was something that she hadn’t considered or even dreamed of.

But as she watched Aidan happily munch on his food and Atsuko flicker into the form of a lion cub for a few seconds before returning back to being a wolf, Riza knew in her heart that this was what she wanted. Despite being torn down, she found a new part of herself in this mess and she would find a way to fulfill her end of her promise to Roy. They always found a way. That was who they were. Nothing could separate them, not her discharge, not Truth, not King Bradley, not the military, not war… They would always be together.

**Author's Note:**

> riza hawkeye - northwestern wolf/northern timber wolf - wojciech (pronounced “VOI-chekh”): means “soldier” + “solace, comfort, joy”  
> fuhrer grumman - arctic fox - min: means “quick, clever, sharp” and/or “people, citizens”  
> aidan - unsettled - atsuko: means “warm” and/or “deep, true, sincere” + “child”  
> roy mustang - african lion - shula: means "flame" in arabic


End file.
